Suspensions are used in a variety of products for accurately positioning and supporting a transducer. For example, suspensions are used to support read/write heads in disc drives. A typical disc drive includes a housing that encloses a variety of disc drive components. The components include one or more rotating discs having data surfaces that are coated with a medium for storage of digital information in a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks.
The discs are mounted on a spindle motor that causes the discs to spin and the data surfaces of the discs to pass under respective aerodynamic bearing disc head sliders. The sliders carry transducers, which write information to and read information from the data surfaces of the discs. The slider and transducer are often together referred to as the “head.” An actuator mechanism moves the heads from track to track across the surfaces of the discs under control of electronic circuitry. The actuator mechanism includes a track accessing arm and a suspension for each slider. The suspension includes a load beam and a gimbal. The load beam provides a preload force, which forces the slider toward the disc surface. The gimbal is positioned between the slider and the load beam, or is integrated in the load beam, to provide a resilient connection that allows the slider to pitch and roll while following the topography of the disc.
The suspension generates the preload force through a preload bend in the load beam, which becomes elastically deformed when the suspension is loaded into the disc drive. The preload bend is typically formed near a base plate of the suspension, which is adjacent the track accessing arm. The load beam has a relatively rigid portion, which transfers the preload force from the elastically deformed preload bend to the slider. The rigid portion is typically made by forming stiffening rails or flanges along the longitudinal edges of the suspension.
In general, the suspension is manufactured through a punch and die process and then assembled. This process punches and drills the load beam material and the gimbal material. The gimbal is then attached to the load beam by welding or adhesion. This manufacturing process and assembly is time consuming as well as costly because of the plurality of steps and components required. Integrated suspensions in which the gimbal and load beam are formed from a single piece of material have also been devised. These designs, however, do not provide proper gimbaling action or become deformed under the preload force. In addition, devising an integrated suspension is costly because both the gimbal and load arm must be formed out-of-plane from each other. A need exists for an improved suspension, which can be manufactured in a simple, yet cost effective manner.
Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.